MOTHERS' UNION.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 26, Issue 10, 1 October 1936, Page 2

MOTHERS' UNION.

"For it is the jubile: it shall be holy unto you." — Lev. xxv. We live m an age m which we rejoice to commemorate centenaries and multi-centenaries of people and events. For example, m England during the past two years, the lamps of Learning and Truth, lighted by Bede m Jarrow and Cuthbert m Lindisfarne, have shone brightly through the intervening centuries by means of religious commemorations. Some of us have still fresh m memory the Golden and Diamond Jubilees of

Queen Victoria. The Silver Jubilee of our late beloved King George, followed so soon by his death, will be remembered by every boy and girl m the Empire. This year, 1936, our Mothers' Union celebrates its Diamond Jubilee. The word Jubilee has its origin m the Bible, and is confined to one chapter only, Leviticus xxv. It means actually a ram's horn and the year of "Jubile" took its name from the rams' horn trumpets which ushered it m. To the Israelite this "holy" year was one of freedom from oppression-, greater leisure, and renewed enjoyment of home and family. Its spiritual value lay m the fact that the whole mind of the nation was to be centred again upon God. "Thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the Lord your God," This same note of worship underlies the spiritual values of any Jubilee kept by members of the Church of Christ to-day. To the Christian a Jubilee commemorates a period of time m the life of an individual, a society, or a nation which has been specially blessed by God. The first spiritual value which it holds must therefore be GRATITUDE. Through the gladness of a great company coming together for worship and m fellowship there must sound the note of the Psalmist: "Yea, the Lord hath done great things for us already, wherof we rejoice." Gratitude to God for the many blessings shed upon the work of the Mothers' Union during the past sixty years; for those whom He inspired to be its first leaders and whose work is being carried on through His grace by every leader, worker and member to-day:- — "Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name be the praise" — the spiritual value of HUMILITY must be found m all our Jubilee rejoicing and thankfulness. COURAGE for the present time, HOPE, which is Confidence, for the future — these are eternal values of the spirit which ■can flood with glory the temporal limitations of our earthly life. We need courage as never before m the history of our Union; courage to hold jhigh the standard of Christ which is being dragged down and sullied in -the social life of our time. . If we can only hold it firmly enough and high enough for all the world to see its beauty and appeal, if we

can rally round it as an impenetrable body-guard, the victory will be given us "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Hope and confidence are the necessary outcomes of courage: "We have Christ's own promise and that cannot fail." No force of evil can m the end prevail against a servant of Christ, or a Society pledged to His Service within His Church: m absolute loyalty to our Lord we find our hope and confidence and our exceeding great reward. We m the Mothers' Union can look back with humble thankful hearts over its past life-story of sixty years, a story of work, growth, and blessing. We can look around us to-day and m the midst of many disquieting tendencies renew our courage, marking several hopeful signs and forward movements, girding ourselves afresh to steadfast loyalty and endeavour. We can look forward m strong hope and confidence to the future, and this spiritual value is essential to a Jubilee, for we should fail m faith and gratitude if we could not trust the Captain of our salvation to lead its ever onward. If we as individual members of a world-wide spiritual Union within the Church of Christ hold fast to our Baptismal Promises we may surely claim the Promise made to the faithful few of old: "The Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy sould m drought . . . thou shalt be like a watered garden whose waters fail not. And they that be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach; the restorer of paths to dwell m." Let us pray during the year of Jubilee:— That the Mothers' Union may consecrate itself anew to "holiness of life" — personal and corporate. That with humility and thankfulness its members may look back over the past years (1) of its history, (2) of their own membership. That with humility and courage they may continue loyal to Christ and His Church m these bewildering days of change. That with humility and hope they may work for and expect a glorious future — "m this world knowledge of

Thy truth and m the world to come life everlasting."